The Feast of the Goat

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Neissa, Peter Anthony (2004), Dictators, Directives, Tyrannical Figures, and Cultural Discourse: Jorge Zalamea, Gabriel García Márquez, and Mario Vargas Llosa (PhD thesis), Boston College: Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, ProQuest 305213134 . UMI Number: 3122132. There is a tidy novelistic completeness to this story, and I don't mean to diminish its horror or the firmness with which Vargas Llosa goes through with the telling of it. But it's hard, in a historical novel, to think of fictional characters as suffering in quite the same way as the historical ones do, and for me the real triumph of this book lies in its study of two people: José René Román (...) and Joaquín Balaguer" - Michael Wood, London Review of Books

The Feast of the Goat's major themes include political corruption, machismo, memory, and writing and power. Olga Lorenzo, reviewer for The Melbourne Age, suggests that overall Vargas Llosa's aim is to reveal the irrational forces of Latin tradition that give rise to despotism. [20] Political corruption [ edit ] The Feast of the Goat is only the second of Vargas Llosa's novels to be set outside Peru (the first being The War of the End of the World). It is also unusual because it's the first to have a female protagonist: as critic Lynn Walford writes of the leading character in The Feast of the Goat, and also Vargas Llosa's subsequent book The Way to Paradise, "both are utterly unlike any of the other female characters in his previous novels". [3] The Feast of the Goat is a 2005 Dominican-Spanish-British drama film directed by Luis Llosa and starring Tomas Milian, Isabella Rossellini, Paul Freeman, Juan Diego Botto and Stephanie Leonidas. It is based on Mario Vargas Llosa's 2000 novel of the same name. [1] [2] Cast [ edit ]Vargas Llosa] is one of our greatest and most influential novelists. His new novel confirms his importance. In the world of fiction his continued exploration of the often-perilous intersection of politics and life has enriched 20th century literature...In The Feast of the Goat, Vargas Llosa paints a portrait that is darkly comic, poignant, admirable and horrifying all at once.” — Los Angeles Times

The Feast of the Goat ( Spanish: La Fiesta del Chivo, 2000) is a novel by the Peruvian Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Mario Vargas Llosa. The book is set in the Dominican Republic and portrays the assassination of Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, and its aftermath, from two distinct standpoints a generation apart: during and immediately after the assassination itself, in May 1961; and thirty-five years later, in 1996. Throughout, there is also extensive reflection on the heyday of the dictatorship, in the 1950s, and its significance for the island and its inhabitants. The Trujillo regime [ edit ] The Dominican Republic's dictator, and the central figure of The Feast of the Goat, Rafael Leónidas Trujillo But above all, Mario Vargas Llosa uses the fictional Urania to facilitate the novel's attempt at remembering the regime. The novel opens and closes with Urania's story, effectively framing the narrative in the terms of remembering the past and understanding its legacy in the present. [34] In addition, because of her academic study of the history of the Trujillo regime, Urania is also confronting the memory of the regime for the country as a whole. [35] This is in keeping with one purpose of the book, which is to ensure that the atrocities of the dictatorship and the dangers of absolute power will be remembered by a new generation. [36] Writing and power [ edit ] The relationship between Trujillo and the likes of Agustin Cabral -- "all his right- and left-hand men" -- is one of Vargas Llosa's chief themes. He imagines Cabral trying to explain it to Urania, how people could "not merely fear him but love him, as children eventually love authoritarian parents, convincing themselves that the whippings and beatings are for their own good," to which she replies: "Was it worth it, Papa? Was it for the illusion that you were wielding power? Sometimes I think it wasn't, that success was secondary. That you . . . really liked getting dirty."A fierce, edgy and enthralling book ... Mr. Vargas Llosa has pushed the boundaries of the traditional historical novel, and in doing so has written a book of harrowing power and lasting resonance."-- The New York Times

In The Feast of the Goat, this 'masterpiece of Latin American and world literature, and one of the finest political novels ever written' ( Bookforum), Mario Vargas Llosa recounts the end of a regime and the birth of a terrible democracy, giving voice to the historical Trujillo and the victims, both innocent and complicit, drawn into his deadly orbit. Kakutani, Michiko (November 16, 2001), "If a Guy Acts Like a Goat, He Deserves the Sobriquet", The New York Times, archived from the original on 23 June 2010It is a very fine novel, probably the most carefully designed piece of fiction he has written: the literary architecture in this case required the scaffolding of history." - Tariq Ali. The Times The Loins Sleep Tonight: Trujillo has a little problem with a girl some nights before his murder. At the end it's revealed that the girl was Urania Cabral. The reason why Costa Rica was able to cultivate a national culture or mentality for continuous democracy is because it was never under the strong influence of Spain. It was left alone because it did not have gold or other mineral resources and was out of the way in the high mountains. It was isolated enough to avoid Spain's negative influence on its political development to be a democracy. Miller, Laura (December 6, 2001), " The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa", Salon, archived from the original on December 27, 2007 , retrieved 2008-03-24 .

I Have No Son!: General Pedro Estrella rejects the Turk after learning he was one of Trujillo's assassins. The Feast of the Goat is a novel by the Peruvian Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Mario Vargas Llosa.The most interesting part, of course, is the Trujillo section as Vargas Llosa gives us a complex portrait of a man who is convinced that he is acting, selflessly, for the good of the country. For example, he justifies the fact that most corporations are owned by him or his family because that encourages the workers to work harder than if the corporation was owned by others or by the public sector. At the time of his death, the country is subject to OAS sanctions because Trujillo’s men tried to kill Venezuelan president, Rómulo Betancourt, though the attempt failed. The OAS sanctions are supported by the United States, not for any humanitarian reasons but because they fear Trujillo’s excesses may lead to a Castro-like revolution. Trujillo’s fight with the Church has also turned the United States against him. As well as his political problems, we also see his personal problems. These include his prostate problem, which leads to incontinence and erectile dysfunction, both of which figure in this novel, his concern about the playboy lifestyle of his sons, his lust for women, particularly under-age women, and, of course, his paranoia. Above all, he feels himself to be the incarnation of the country and that it owes everything to him.